Hospital bombed, hundreds of wounded helpless

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the surgical site of the Mullaiththeevu hospital, functioning as a makeshift hospital at Va’l’lipunam school, are destroyed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery and Mulit-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rocket fire at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. The medical facility which was serving scores of wounded civilians, has been rendered completely out of function for the time being, displaying one of the worst inhuman scene at the ‘Peace Village,’ which has witnessed the most cruel civilian casualties of Sri Lanka’s so-called ‘War on Terrorism’.

The hospital came under artillery fire also Wednesday night, but managed to function somehow.

There are several dead bodies on the sides of the road and under the trees of the hospital. All the medical staff and the patients who manage to move themselves sought refuge in the bunkers and continue to remain there as shells continue to explode as this reports gets filed.

53 school girls were killed in the old Chegnchoalai premises, which came under Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment on 14 August 2006.

Despite repeated calls from the medical authorities, placed through the ICRC, there has been no improvement in Sri Lankan forces conduct on attacks against the hospital in recent months.

Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that the civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.

Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is a signatory to the First, Second and Third Geneva Conventions and it ratified the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, by accession to it, on 23.02.1959.

[Full Coverage]

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